The Latest: Trump slams investigators at 'disgraceful' FBI

Friday

WASHINGTON (AP) " The Latest on President Donald Trump's visit to the FBI (all times local):

8:50 p.m.

President Donald Trump has unleashed a blistering attack on the FBI's leadership.

He is denouncing the bureau for its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, calling it "really disgraceful."

Trump says "you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it."

The president's broadside appears to reflect his anger over revelations that senior FBI officials exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Clinton text messages while working on last year's Clinton probe and during special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into whether Trump associates colluded with Russian officials in the 2016 election.

Trump laced into the bureau as he was departing for its training academy in Virginia, where he lavished praise on graduates of a weeks-long FBI National Academy program for law enforcement leaders from around the country.

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3:45 p.m.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is distancing himself from President Donald Trump's criticism of the FBI. Sessions says he does not share the view that the FBI "is not functioning at a high level all over the country."

Sessions, speaking Friday at a news conference about the Justice Department's crime-fighting efforts, said the FBI is "fulfilling a fabulously important role working to fight against violent crime." But he stopped short of saying whether he agrees with Trump that the reputation of the agency is "in tatters."

Trump again blasted FBI leadership Friday even as he praised state and local officers.

Sessions says it's noteworthy that Trump expressed support for law enforcement in a speech at the FBI's National Academy. The program is for law enforcement leaders from around the country, not FBI agents.

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11:20 a.m.

President Donald Trump is calling for the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a police officer.

Trump, while speaking at the FBI National Academy in Virginia on Friday, pledged to support law enforcement officers and condemned those who attack them.

During the presidential campaign, Trump pledged to sign an executive order as president that would demand capital punishment for cop killers.

He has yet to do so.

The president was warmly received by the crowd of local law enforcement officers who cheered his calls for a crackdown on gangs and an end to chain migration.

The president painted a dark picture of a nation under siege by crime, at one moment wondering aloud "What the hell is going on in Chicago?"

The crowd laughed.

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10:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump is addressing a graduating class of law enforcement officers at the FBI National Academy.

Trump on Friday praised the academy, a 10-week professional course of study for U.S. and international law enforcement officers.

Trump, a frequent FBI critic, promised that as president he will be "more loyal than anyone else could be" to the police.

He honored the graduates for completing the rigorous training, saying the "elite training will help save lives."

FBI Director Christopher Wray says Trump is the first president to address a graduating class at the FBI training center in Quantico, Virginia since Richard Nixon.

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9:50 a.m.

President Donald Trump says "it's a shame what's happened" with the FBI, calling its handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation "really disgraceful."

Speaking to reporters as he departs for a speech at the FBI training academy in Quantico, Va., Trump promises that "we're going to rebuild the FBI."

Trump alluded to newly revealed edits to former FBI Director James Comey's 2016 statement on the Clinton probe: "It is very sad when you look at those documents, how they've done that is really, really disgraceful, and you have a lot of really angry people who are seeing it."

Trump reiterated that "there was no collusion" between his campaign and the Russian government, adding the recent revelations prove his claim that the Clinton investigation was "rigged."

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7:53 a.m.

The White House says newly-revealed FBI records show there is "extreme bias" against President Donald Trump among senior leadership at the FBI.

"There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time," Gidley charges, as special counsel Robert Mueller pushes on with a probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. Gidley says Trump maintains confidence in the FBI's rank-and-file the Justice Department.

Trump is scheduled to attend an FBI National Academy graduation service later Friday.

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